gesundheit

I agree, I didn't care for Dee Dee essentially absolving Zoe with that mea culpa. Make her meet in the middle!

It's unreal to me how much more cliched and trite this show gets each episode. It's really kind of shocking considering the pedigree and how promising the start was. I'm so relieved there's only one left, because clearly I can't help myself and have to finish it. I'll miss Dee Dee! That's about the extent of it. Why doesn't the therapist offer to continue the group if they're able to pay (or is he just the airline's EAP person)? Why is he so pissy with patients? Who just says nothing till hours later to a child who's just announced that he was supposed to die in the crash that killed his whole family? What congressional candidate exploits her personal connections and wastes the TSA's time for her personal romantic gestures, holding a staged federal apprehension of a Ghanian man WITH A LITTLE KID in the middle of a busy airport? (Way to traumatize an already traumatized child!) Why did the Amanda/Steve scenes feel like a soap opera parody? So unearned! And Sam's wife is way too kind.

That was my feeling too. This was a cruelty to Jonah. He has to take this secret to his grave and never get the proper support to process and heal. That family will never recover. Such a bleak ending. I was wondering if the school shooting was the same one from the first episode? I couldn't remember where that one took place. Or they just had two school shooting episodes this close together, completely unrelated? I suppose it would be interesting if some of the cases were linked, just in a way to demonstrate the far-reaching consequences of acts of violence, cover-ups, etc.

This show is exhausting. Throwing a piano down the stairs? In a school where an entire floor is entirely unattended in the middle of the school day for some reason? Sam's a jackass. I felt like the scoring during those scenes was trying to indicate that we should feel excited butterflies for his self-awakening or something? Vernon's a dumbass for engaging.

Full agreement. This episode set up a massive ton of things that could have been interrogated and led to some thought-provoking moments. Instead they provided zero nuance or subtlety to the point that I was repeatedly embarrassed by how old-fashioned it all seemed. Outside of the social media component, this felt like a groundbreaking evening network drama in 1987. Agreed. They have the ingredients for raising complicated questions, but for the most part end up presenting it in the most oversimplified, cliched way possible. I do think there have been some exceptions (Scott's Story, Robyn's Story), but I feel like most episode are taking the most obvious and easy angle.

Another hamfisted, overwritten one, but still interesting to see unfold. I was a little distracted and didn't watch terribly closely, though -- what was Cummings doing? I couldn't tell if she was supposed to be drugged/drunk or have a serious mouth injury from the attack for most of the episode (or just a bad fillers incident?). She just kind of stopped moving her mouth after a certain point and always looked dazed.

This show feels like it would've been really beautiful and groundbreaking in, like, 1998. No clue, but John's an asshole. Lacey might be trying him right now, but he just walked out on his wife and nephew while they're trying to put the pieces back together after an unimaginable tragedy. He should try therapy before abandoning a grieving child. (Granted, I don't personally like that grieving child! But he's still a grieving child!) But he'll probably go off on some spiritual journey on his own now after his magical experience in that field. Although what is with Taylor Schilling's hair? It seems deliberately styled to be pushed in her face in an "effortlessly messy" way that looks very, very high-effort. Comb your hair, Lacey! I loved Kojo and Adriana at first but the story is so paint-by-numbers, I just cringe every time. And yeah, why isn't he the one to move? He has two reasons to stay, considering I doubt Becks wants to be uprooted and live in a new country right now. That story has practically dropped the needs of the orphaned child completely. (Seems to be a pattern.)

But if a living child goes to new guardians, one would assume some sort of trust would immediately be available for his care? Which would be separate from the rest of it? (None of this is really important of course, I'm just obsessed with the idea that you could inherit a rich family's kid but not be provided with any immediate funding for the care of said kid!)

My guess is is the ring theory approach to crisis/grief. He is less affected than Lacey (who in turn is less affected than Edward, the center). Or maybe he just isn't interested in talk therapy -- which wouldn't surprise me since he has a "say the hard thing then leave the room if it's not well received" approach to discussions. John (I think that's his name) should definitely get some therapy, though! And I think Lacey needs more than the support group, too. And obviously Edward does. They should be in family therapy with somebody just focused on them. Not that I understand how slowly or quickly inheritances move since I've never gotten one o' those, but it's clear Edward's family was wealthy so it seems like Lacey and John would've gotten a good chunk of it, and even if the bulk of it is going to take a while to get, they should certainly have some right away as Edward's legal guardians. I've been in a grief group but never one in response to a specific event that took all our loved ones, so I'm just not sure how that would work anyway -- particularly because of complications like people grilling the survivor for details. But what I can say is that our facilitator was much more engaged and helpful! That definitely may have been him! But I'm pretty sure we've never heard him talk about his own situation before this episode.

I think it was just fate -- considering both the lead guest star and the episode's director, this was definitely made to be a February sweeps episode.

I'm feeling pretty similarly to everyone else. Like, now we have a new guy? So now we have two "man coming to terms with his sexuality" storylines, one in the present and one coming out in pieces from the past? I don't think we're even supposed to remember that, because I don't think we've heard anything from him before. He's been there, having significant-looking reactions to other people's stories (especially Dee Dee's), but I honestly don't remember him ever talking before. It's too much. If they wanted to follow this many people, they should've had more of them from the jump instead of basically introducing them and asking us to care this many episodes in. Yes, I'm aching for her to just tell the daughter she cannot afford it. She's absolutely got the right instinct to protect her daughter from ugly truths, but unfortunately the lack of money is cold fact. I think that might've been the implication at the end? I do like Sam, even as a late add. Dee Dee must be so irritated though, that somehow she became the group mom. Everyone keeps coming to her with their problems. Doesn't that grief group have a facilitator?? (He always looks bored on the rare occasion that they show him.) It's been bugging me this whole series that the grief group is in NYC when obviously people on the plane could've been from anywhere, it could've been a connection, they could've been flying home, etc. I'm such a dope that it didn't even occur to me till this episode that there's probably another grief group for the crash's bereaved in LA. (Oh god, they'll probably start making us watch their stories out of nowhere two episodes from now!)

Definitely the most interesting episode since the premiere. I'm okay with this show being hit-or-miss as long as it's sometimes hitting! Unlike a lot of the others, I didn't immediately figure out exactly how the flashback story was going to play out, so it really had me guessing about what had happened and what the trial charges were. Great performances, too. And of course Billy Porter knows how to put on a show!

Yes! Not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but a hell of a lot of fun. He got to fully show his range in the American Crime anthology series, he was so so good in those.

Does anyone know how closely these episodes adhere to the original series? I'm wondering if some of the sloppiness is due to some of the legal procedures that stood as obstacles in the UK version not really functioning the same way in the US criminal justice system, with the showrunner staying too close to the originals. Or is it really just the series premise that's been adapted here? (I have to imagine the series premiere for the US version was a stateside-only story for sadly obvious cultural reasons, but I'm not sure about the others.) I'd imagine because it's the most realistic, given the preponderance of wrongful convictions for Black men. They did seem to at least be trying to have something to say on that. I always wonder in situations like that if the little girl hasn't even been told what the story is, which is preferable to me -- I don't want to watch a nine-year-old play that kind of trauma. But they could certainly direct her to look sad or confused! Anyway, with some of these (like this one and the first one), I'd actually love a follow-up episode. With the second and third episodes I was grateful they're just one-episode arcs. MJW gave a strong performance. As did Wendell Pierce, as always! (And with Clark Johnson directing, a little The Wire reunion! With Robert Wisdom in that other episode, seems to be some common denominator. I hope there are more to come.)

Ah thank you, I guess I wasn't watching very closely! (Or my memory is trash, equal chance of both)

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about Marge, thanks for the reminder! This was 100% how I took it and found it very clever. Not a false flashback at all, just not the zoomed-out, full-info "version."

Maybe I'm overidentifying with Charlie here but I have to confess: if you asked me to name all the current (or event recent?) professional fighters in any genre of professional fighting? Manny Pacquiao is probably the only name I could come up with. (I have no idea if he's current, even, just that he's a known name even to people like me who are totally clueless about that world.) (I also had no idea he's Asian.) I can't imagine there's much that can be proven at all considering Keith and two other people already opened up the car and poked around in it. They showed her though -- she looked pretty burned up, but was certainly talking. I don't think that was supposed to be imaginary. It's funny, one thing I was thinking about right before I started this episode was whether or not they'd ever give Charlie a romantic situation or at least a one-night stand in one of these episodes, and then that was the first time there was even a spark of anything! The show certainly doesn't need it but I do wonder if/how such a thing will ever come into play beyond this small bit.

I don't know about this show. Good actors, good stories and characters (for the most part), but there's something kind of hackneyed about the smaller moments. Shay's dialogue. Adrianna's silly, question-evading speech getting a standing O?? ("You don't want to see me before coffee!" Cringe.) "There's no playbook for this." John couldn't just tell the angry people at the bar that he was a family member of the one crash survivor? Mystery girl at the bodega acting like she had something urgent to tell Edward but spending every moment of her available time just telling him to be quiet? Anyway, this week's episode was definitely a backslide for me. Also, it's nice that everyone understands Edward may need a wider berth than most 12-year-olds, but no, in fact, he cannot "sleep wherever he wants." I'd imagine Shay's mom did not want to inherit an extra kid but has too much compassion to tell him he can't just stay there every night. For now. Connie Britton continues to be the magical entity she is, though. And I'm glad we finally got a little more justification for those big moments with Rescue Dude in the first episode. And Amanda and her fiance's brother hadn't had nearly enough to drink to be making terrible decisions like that! I also feel like we hadn't spent enough time with her for a moment like that yet?

Rian Johnson. Brief commitment. Who would turn it down? Irresistible gig.

Well color me surprised. Best episode in a long time, how refreshing! Always wonderful to see Emmy!Nominee! Richard Cabral strutting his stuff (he does stunted and tortured so well), no irritating Muncy conflict, only appropriate amounts of Benson, and in a legit Fin episode for once, and a Munch reference complete with an update? Beautiful.

I guess? But I have so many questions! And of course was infuriated that Dee Dee just walked away from that woman's house without asking any! (I totally understand that it's in character and works for the story, it's just not in my character, so it drove me nuts!)

Ha! I think I just did a spit-take. Right? The whole "philosophy" angle on this episode was really annoying from every angle. He was just never going to identify him? And why did he think it was the Greek guy? How convenient for the plot, despite looking nothing like the actual perp. I think sometimes the writers try to play up local color like the endless cyclists-vs-pedestrians-vs-cars battles of NYC, but you're right, this one was misplaced. Fin's usually either more compassionate or just business. Weird moment. And they all seemed fine with that as the only explanation -- in fact, Muncy even made a snide remark at the wife that it wasall happening because of her affair. Cheating's not great, but jesus. It's not her fault her husband's a psycho serial rapist/killer. (Also somehow she was too stupid to understand that she should lie and tell him the affair's over and she's so sorry, but once SVU explains it to her for one second, she's a masterly, nuanced negotiator?) Yep, that's apparently his primary character trait now. He's convinced humanity peaked in 1999? Good grief. And we know when SVU decides on a character trait, they amplify it ad nauseum. So we should brace ourselves! I'm ready for the Manhattan-vs-Bronx commentary to cease any day now. I was so excited for that big multi-episode story to end so we could get back to self-contained episodes. Guess not. Guess they think they need a cliffhanger every week now. They do not! It's the literal opposite! I did like the COTW, though. Didn't they do another "messing with traffic signals" story before? Or maybe that was OG L&O?

Also, I wonder what the point was of showing us the rescuer with a drug problem in the first episode and then never revisiting? Saving it for later? Tossing in a few "hooks" for possible future seasons of folks to go back and track?

Watched all three today. Dee Dee is a great character, I want even more of her story! And I love Kojo and Adriana and Becks. I have to say I'm not all that into Edward himself -- I'd like to spend more time with his aunt and uncle and less time with him and his new friend, but considering the title I guess this is what we'll be sticking with. The first episode was so grim but it's settling in to a nice place where there's both tragedy and a lot of hope.

Okay, so every episode is going to be wildly different in tone and style, I see. Perhaps that's the point? I don't know. But this was definitely the Lifetime Movie version of the show. In fact I'm pretty sure I've seen at least three Lifetime movies with that exact plot, just a slightly different protagonist each time. Sometimes the son, sometimes the daughter, sometimes the sister-in-law!